Junk Food Causes a Third of Heart Attacks

Diets heavy in fried foods, salty snacks and meat account for about 35 percent of heart attacks globally, researchers reported on Monday.

Their study of 52 countries showed that people who ate a "Western" diet based on meat, eggs and junk food were more likely to have heart attacks, while those who ate more fruits and vegetables had a lower risk.

The study supports previous findings that show junk food and animal fats can cause heart disease, and especially heart attacks.

Dr. Salim Yusuf at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues questioned more than 16,000 patients, 5,700 of whom had just suffered a first heart attack.

They took blood samples and had each patient fill out a detailed form on their eating habits between February 1999 and March 2003.

They divided the volunteers into three groups.

"The first factor was labeled 'Oriental' because of its high loading on tofu and soy and other sauces," they wrote in their report, published in the journal Circulation.

"The second factor was labeled 'Western' because of its high loading on fried food, salty snacks, and meat intake. The third dietary factor was labeled 'prudent' because of its high loadings on fruit and vegetable intake."

People who ate more fruits and vegetables had a 30 percent lower risk of heart attack compared to people who ate little or none of these foods, they found.

People eating a Western diet had a 35 percent greater risk of heart attack compared to people who consumed little or no fried foods and meat. Those eating the "Oriental" diet had an average risk of heart attack compared to the others.

The finding is important because it has not been clear if it is food per se or something else driving heart attack risk. Rich diets may be associated with a richer lifestyle that includes little or no exercise, for instance.

But the researchers note that heart disease is no longer an affliction only of the rich.

"Approximately 80 percent of the global cardiovascular disease burden occurs in low- and middle-income countries," they wrote.

The tofu-rich diet could be neutral rather than protective because it is high in sodium, they said. High sodium intake can raise blood pressure and the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Coffee Shrinks Breasts

Swedish researchers at Lund University have found a clear link between the amount of coffee a woman drinks and the size of her breasts. Amazingly, drinking three or more cups of coffee each day could cause a woman’s breasts to shrink!

Oncologist Helena Jernstrom noticed that large-breasted women were more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, but found that drinking at least three cups of coffee reduced their risk of developing breast cancer. She began looking for a link and found a gene in half of all women that relates to coffee intake and breast size. The researchers also studied almost 300 women, quizzing them about their coffee intake and their bust measurements.

Read the story

Gastric Bypass Reduces Heart Risks

The risk faced by obese people of having a heart attack or other cardiovascular "events" is reduced substantially after they undergo gastric bypass surgery to lose weight, according to a recent study.

The take-home message is that "bariatric surgery can be considered as a means to reduce cardiovascular risk (in obese patients) after conservative treatment options have failed," Dr. John A. Batsis told Reuters Health.

Batsis, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire and his colleagues identified six studies that looked at cardiovascular risk after bariatric surgery for obesity. The risk was estimated from standard tables that assigned a score for factors such as weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Depending on how the patients' risk was assessed, the researchers found that gastric bypass reduced the risk for a future cardiovascular event anywhere from 8 percent to 79 percent, compared to not having the procedure, the team reports in the American Journal of Cardiology.

Read the story

Avoid Flu Shots With the One Vitamin that Will Stop Flu in Its Tracks

Another influenza season is beginning, and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will strongly urge Americans to get a flu shot. In fact, the CDC mounts a well-orchestrated campaign each season to generate interest and demand for flu shots.

But a recent study published in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine found that vaccinating young children against the flu appeared to have no impact on flu-related hospitalizations or doctor visits during two recent flu seasons.

At first glance, the data did suggest that children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years derived some protection from vaccination in these years. But after adjusting for potentially relevant variables, the researchers concluded that "significant influenza vaccine effectiveness could not be demonstrated for any season, age, or setting" examined.

Additionally, a Group Health study found that flu shots do not protect elderly people against developing pneumonia -- the primary cause of death resulting as a complication of the flu. Others have questioned whether there is any mortality benefit with influenza vaccination. Vaccination coverage among the elderly increased from 15 percent in 1980 to 65 percent now, but there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza or pneumonia.

There is some evidence that flu shots cause Alzheimer’s disease, most likely as a result of combining mercury with aluminum and formaldehyde. Mercury in vaccines has also been implicated as a cause of autism.

Three other serious adverse reactions to the flu vaccine are joint inflammation and arthritis, anaphylactic shock (and other life-threatening allergic reactions), and Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralytic autoimmune disease.

One credible hypothesis that explains the seasonal nature of flu is that influenza is a vitamin D deficiency disease.

Vitamin D levels in your blood fall to their lowest point during flu seasons. Unable to be protected by the body’s own antibiotics (antimicrobial peptides) that are released by vitamin D, a person with a low vitamin D blood level is more vulnerable to contracting colds, influenza, and other respiratory infections.

Studies show that children with rickets, a vitamin D-deficient skeletal disorder, suffer from frequent respiratory infections, and children exposed to sunlight are less likely to get a cold. The increased number of deaths that occur in winter, largely from pneumonia and cardiovascular diseases, are most likely due to vitamin D deficiency.

Unfortunately, now, for the first time, flu vaccination is also being pushed for virtually all children -- not just those under 5.

This is a huge change. Previously, flu vaccine was recommended only for youngsters under 5, who can become dangerously ill from influenza. This year, the government is recommending that children from age 6 months to 18 years be vaccinated, expanding inoculations to 30 million more school-age children.

The government argues that while older children seldom get as sick as the younger ones, it's a bigger population that catches flu at higher rates, so the change should cut missed school, and parents' missed work when they catch the illness from their children.

Of course, this policy ignores the fact that a systematic review of 51 studies involving 260,000 children age 6 to 23 months found no evidence that the flu vaccine is any more effective than a placebo.

Sources:

• LewRockwell.com October 3, 2008

• EMS Responder September 9, 2008

• WebMD October 6, 2008

• Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine October 2008; 162(10):943-51

Plastics Chemical Linked to Disease in Adults

Bisphenol A or BPA, a chemical found in plastics, has been linked to some of the most deadly and rapidly increasing medical conditions in American adults.

A research team from the University of Iowa, the Peninsula Medical School, the University of Exeter, and the University of Plymouth found evidence that links BPA to heart disease and diabetes in adults. BPA, which is used in polycarbonate plastic products such as refillable water bottles, some plastic eating utensils, compact disks and many other everyday products, is one of the world’s most widely-used chemicals.....more

New Drug Shows Exenatide-Like Promise in Type 2 Treatment

An experimental exenatide (Byetta)-like drug called liraglutide has shown the ability to enhance insulin and glucagon production and suppress appetite in type 2 patients, according to a report in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Liraglutide is a manmade analog of the hormone GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1), which stimulates the growth of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas and insulin secretion.

Because of liraglutide's success in the phase 3 trial, its manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, will now seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market liraglutide in the United States.

In the one-year Novo Nordisk-funded study conducted by the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, 746 type 2 patients received once daily injections of either 1.2 mg or 1.8 mg of liraglutide or a once daily oral tablet of glimepiride, a sulfonylurea that promotes insulin production.
Patients receiving liraglutide also took dummy pills, while patients taking glimepiride also received dummy injections.

As they began treatment, patients' A1c's ranged from 7% to 11%. By the end of the study:

• the A1c's of patients receiving 1.8 mg of liraglutide daily dropped by 1.14 percent
• the A1c's of patients receiving 1.2 mg of liraglutide daily dropped by 0.84 percent
  
• the A1c's of patients taking glimepiride daily dropped by 0.51 percent
  

Six patients had to drop out of the study due to severe nausea. Common side effect of exenatide-like drugs are. nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, symptoms that ease up or disappear within 30 days in most patients.

The study also tracked weight: in the first 16 weeks, the subjects taking liraglutide lost weight, while most of those taking glimepiride gained weight.

Fructose Sets Stage for Sudden, Rapid Weight Gain

Eating too much fructose can induce leptin resistance, a condition that can easily lead to becoming overweight when combined with a high-fat, high-calorie diet, according to a new study with rats.


Although previous studies have shown that being leptin resistant can lead to rapid weight gain on a high-fat, high-caloric diet, this is the first study to show that leptin resistance can develop as a result of high fructose consumption. The study also showed for the first time that leptin resistance can develop silently, that is, with little indication that it is happening.


The study, “Fructose-induced leptin resistance exacerbates weight gain in response to subsequent high-fat feeding,” was carried out by Alexandra Shapiro, Wei Mu, Carlos Roncal, Kit-Yan Cheng, Richard J. Johnson and Philip J. Scarpace, all at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville. The study appears in the American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, published by The American Physiological Society....more

Steroid Use Doubles Risk of Violence

Young men who use anabolic steroids are twice as likely to engage in violence than those who do not use the muscle-building drugs, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. ...more

Doctors Say There Is a Link Between Oral Sex and Throat Cancer

Teresa Dillon was surprised to learn four years ago that what she deemed as an average sore throat actually was stage 2 cancer on her tonsil. "People think the face of oral cancer is a 70-year-old man who's been chewing tobacco and drinking whiskey all his life," she said. "But the face of oral cancer now is — it's me, a young woman, healthy, nonsmoking, fit."

But what really shocked the waitress and then 38-year-old was that the human papillomavirus may have caused her illness, a illness that is often sexually transmitted. "It was a virus that caused my tumor, the HPV virus, which just knocked me over," Dillon said.
The HPV Cancer Connection ...more

More Americans Have High Blood Pressure

The number of Americans with high blood pressure is on the rise thanks in large part to growing rates of obesity, researchers said on Tuesday.But increasing numbers of those with high blood pressure, also called hypertension, are getting the condition treated, researchers from the U.S. government's National Institutes of Health wrote in the journal Hypertension.

High blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure or kidney failure. It is sometimes called the "silent killer" because it has no symptoms, and many people have it for years without knowing it.Data spanning six years through 2004 showed that 29 percent of U.S. adults had high blood pressure, compared to 24 percent in the six-year period ending in 1994, the researchers said.....more

Docs Often Skip Key Test Before Heart Surgery

People on Medicare who get elective surgery to open blocked heart arteries often do not get the recommended stress tests to confirm the surgery is warranted, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

The surgery, known as PCI or percutaneous coronary intervention, involves threading a balloon-tipped catheter through the arteries and opening up a clog. A tiny wire-mesh coil called a stent is often inserted to prop open the artery.

PCI costs Medicare, the U.S. government's health insurance program for people age 65 and older, $10,000 to $15,000 per procedure and has contributed significantly to increases in Medicare spending since the mid-1990s.....more

Surfing Internet May Keep Memories Sharp

Searching the Internet may help middle-aged and older adults keep their memories sharp, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles studied people doing Web searches while their brain activity was recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging scans.

"What we saw was people who had Internet experience used more of their brain during the search," Dr. Gary Small, a UCLA expert on aging, said in a telephone interview.....more

Energy-Saving Lightbulbs a Health Danger

Some energy-saving lightbulbs emit enough harmful ultraviolet radiation to cause sunburn if placed too close to the body. These fluorescent lightbulbs, which are coil-shaped and unencapsulated, are promoted as energy-savers since they use about two-thirds less energy and last ten times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs.

But Britain’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) issued a warning to people who use the bulbs close to their bodies, such as in reading lamps or in their occupations, such as jewelry makers, and those who have medical conditions that make them sensitive to UV light. If skin is in very close proximity to the bulbs, it gets the same exposure as if it were exposed to bright sun.

The HPA advises people not to use the bulbs any closer than twelve inches from the body for any longer than one hour a day. Those who use lightbulbs close to the body for longer periods should switch to an encapsulated form which is shaped more like a traditional bulb.

The agency doesn’t say that the lightbulbs could cause skin cancer, but they do believe they could cause sunburn. Still, they advise people not remove most bulbs from their homes. “This is precautionary advice,” said HPA’s Chief Executive Justin McCracken. “We are advising people to avoid using the open lightbulbs for prolonged close work until the problem is sorted out and to use encapsulated bulbs instead. In other situations where people are not likely to be very close to the bulbs for any length of time, all types of compact fluorescent light bulbs are safe to use."

The safety of the new lightbulbs has been questioned before. They contain a small amount of mercury and some scientists fear it could cause brain and kidney damage if the bulb is accidently broken and mercury vapor is inhaled. Even unbroken bulbs could eventually contaminate soil and ground water if improperly disposed.

Fish Oil May Slow Healing of Wounds

A recent study shows that popular fish oil supplements have an effect on the healing process of small, acute wounds in human skin. But whether that effect is detrimental, as researchers initially suspected, remains a mystery.

The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils are widely considered to benefit cardiovascular health and other diseases related to chronic inflammation because of their anti-inflammatory properties. But insufficient inflammation during the initial stage of wound healing may delay the advancement of later stages.

In the study, blister wounds on the arms of people taking fish oil supplements were compared to the wounds of people taking a placebo. The wounds healed in about the same amount of time – but at the local cellular level, something unexpected happened. The levels of proteins associated with initiating and sustaining inflammation were higher in the blister fluid in people who had taken the active fish oil supplements. The researchers had expected those proteins to be lowered by the increased systemic presence of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood.

“That finding was hard to explain,” said Jodi McDaniel, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of nursing at Ohio State University. “These proteins may have other functions that we don’t yet fully understand. And our results also suggested there could be a difference between men and women in the amount of inflammatory proteins that are produced, because on average, women had lower levels of one of the proteins.”

If the polyunsaturated fatty acids in the fish oils do indeed delay acute wound healing, then they probably should be discontinued for awhile by patients scheduled for surgery, McDaniel said. They appear to have enough of an effect that patients should at least inform their doctors if they’re taking a fish oil supplement, she added.

But there could still be a bright side to the supplements’ ability to alter those proteins and other molecular substances that control inflammation locally. Fish oil’s systemic anti-inflammatory power, which has been illustrated in previous studies, still might assist in the healing of chronic wounds at the local level. Chronic wounds are essentially stuck in an inflammatory stage that slows or prevents transition to the later stages needed for complete healing. That mechanism needs to be explored further, McDaniel said.

“There’s so much information out there now about omega-3s and they clearly have lots of potential,” McDaniel said. “We’re just trying to figure out how to evaluate what they do and how to advise people to take these supplements. Our goal isn’t to stop supplement use but to fill in the picture of what conditions they help and what they might hurt.”

The research is published in a recent issue of the journal Wound Repair and Regeneration.

Study participants were divided into two groups of 15 healthy adults each. One group took a placebo, and the other took an active supplement containing 1.6 grams of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and 1.1 grams of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) daily for four weeks. EPA and DHA are the polyunsaturated fatty acids obtained primarily from fish oil that serve as the basis of most standard omega-3 supplements.

Previous research has suggested that these fatty acids affect the production of proteins called proinflammatory cytokines, which signal biological processes during the inflammatory stage of wound healing. The primary cytokines in the process are interleukin-1 beta (IL-1b), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a).

But research had not yet addressed how the interaction between fatty acids and these cytokines might affect human wounds.

McDaniel and colleagues expected to find that research participants taking the fish oil supplements – and therefore being affected by their anti-inflammatory properties – would have significantly lower levels of the cytokines in their blister wounds during the initial stage of inflammation, resulting in a slower healing process.

Instead, the group taking the fish oil had significantly higher levels of IL-1b in their blister wounds than did the placebo group 24 hours after the wounds were created. The active group also had higher levels of IL-6 and TNF-a cytokines in their blisters over time than did the placebo group, but those differences in levels were not significant. The blisters took an average of 10.7 days to completely heal in the active supplement group and an average of 9.8 days in the placebo group, but the difference was not significant.

The results suggest that the function of these cytokines still isn’t completely understood, McDaniel said. And the scientists were also surprised to find that gender appeared to make a difference in cytokine production. Men were more likely than women among the active supplement group to have higher levels of the IL-1b cytokine in their wounds. McDaniel said that some studies have suggested that estrogen plays a role in inhibiting the production of this particular protein during the inflammatory stage of wound healing, but more research is needed.

McDaniel and colleagues are following up with a similar study in which they are adding a low-dose aspirin to both the fish oil supplement and placebo groups. Some research has shown that aspirin can facilitate the anti-inflammatory properties of omega-3 fatty acids, and low-dose aspirin is commonly included in the medication regimen of patients with cardiovascular disease.

The researchers also will look at different biological markers in blister wounds to see if the combination of fish oil and aspirin produces compounds that function as what McDaniel called “stop and go switches” in controlling inflammation.

“If we find that the fish oil can work in an anti-inflammatory fashion at the local level of wound sites, we would consider moving on to the chronic wound population,” McDaniel said. “Even if we find that there are times when omega-3 fatty acids should not be taken in advance of creating an acute wound, such as in elective surgery, we still have high hopes that fish oil might be beneficial for chronic wounds in certain situations.”

Your Mirror Provides an Instant Health Checkup

By: Sylvia Booth Hubbard

A hard, close-up stare at yourself in the mirror every morning can provide a daily health checkup that could extend your life and perhaps even save it someday. “Mirror, mirror on the wall—who’s the healthiest of them all?” is a phrase you should take to heart, since many expert diagnosticians believe our faces reflect our state of health. They believe that all too often warning signs like bloodshot eyes are ignored as inconsequential when they could in fact be evidence of serious illness. Here are some of the medical problems that a long look in the looking glass can reveal: Eye Warning Signs: Bloodshot or inflamed eyes can signal everything from an infection to gastroenteritis, or even autoimmune diseases such as arthritis. A white ring around the iris or colored part of the eye can be an indication of fatty deposits triggered by high cholesterol, as can small waxy lumps on the skin around the eye. Pale eyelids may indicate anemia. Drooping eyelids, often caused by eye strain, can also be signs of either a stroke or even lung cancer, which can put pressure on a nerve group in the chest that affects the eyes. Hair Warning Signs: Premature grayness can signal vitamin B12 deficiency because it is essential for pigmentation. This condition is known as pernicious anemia, and other symptoms can be weight loss, fatigue, and diarrhea. Thinning hair in women can be a sign of an iron deficiency. In both sexes, thinning hair on the head and/or eyebrows, especially if accompanied by dry skin and fatigue, can be a symptom of an underactive thyroid gland. Skin Warning Signs: A spotty complexion can indicate irritable bowel syndrome. Polycystic ovary syndrome can cause acne in women due to hormonal changes. Changes in skin color, especially to yellow, can be a sign of jaundice and liver problems. A color change to orange can be a sign of too much beta-carotene consumed in yellow and red vegetables and fruit. Sallow skin can be a symptom of dehydration. Itchy skin can be eczema, while itchy hands and feet can be a sign of poor liver function. Mouth Warning Signs: Bleeding gums are commonly a sign of gingivitis due to poor oral hygiene, but they can also indicate leukemia, which affects blood clotting. Ulcers can be a sign of minor burns from food, or even stress, but if they last more than two weeks they need to be evaluated for cancer. Cracked lips, especially at the corners of the mouth and if they’re persistent, can be caused either by anemia or diabetes. Pale lips can be a sign of low oxygen levels in the blood caused by heart or lung problems, and also can be yet another indicator or anemia. White patches on the tongue can be caused by a fungus called thrush, and be cleared quickly by an anti-fungal mouthwash. White patches that are not sore and don’t go away need to be checked for cancerous cell changes. © 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved. www.newsmax.com

Study Confirms Vioxx Doubles Heart Risks

A long-term analysis of people who took the arthritis drug Vioxx confirms it doubles the risk of strokes and heart attacks, researchers said on Monday, but this risk goes away a year after people stop taking it.

And other drugs in the same class of painkillers known as Cox-2 inhibitors may cause similar harm, they said.

What the Chemical Industry Doesn't Want You to Know about Everyday Products

The global chemical industry annually produces about 6 billion pounds of bisphenol A (BPA), an integral component of a vast array of plastic products, generating at least $6 billion in annual sales. The value of BPA-based manufactured goods is probably incalculable. Environmental Working Group studies have found BPA in more than half the canned foods and beverages sampled from supermarkets across the U.S.

Soon after scientists Frederick Vom Saal and Wade Welshons found the first hard evidence that miniscule amounts of BPA caused irreversible changes in the prostates of fetal mice, a scientist from Dow Chemical Company showed up at the Missouri lab. He disputed the data and declared, as Vom Saal recalls, "We want you to know how distressed we are by your research."

"It was not a subtle threat," Vom Saal says. "It was really, really clear, and we ended up saying, threatening us is really not a good idea."

The Missouri scientists redoubled their investigations of BPA. Industry officials and scientist allies fired back, sometimes in nose-to-nose debates at scientific gatherings, sometimes more insidiously. "I heard [chemical industry officials] were making blatantly false statements about our research," says Welshons. "They were skilled at creating doubt when none existed."

The industry's increasingly noisy denials backfired. By the turn of the millennium, dozens of scientists were launching their own investigations of the chemical. But the chemical industry can be expected to fight aggressively against more regulation. Earlier this year, the industry spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat a California legislative proposal to ban BPA in food packaging. The Chemistry Council and allied companies and industry groups hired an army of lobbyists. Tactics included an industry email to food banks charging that a BPA ban would mean the end of distributions of canned goods for the poor.

Read More...

Plastic Ingredient May Cause Smaller Penises

By: Sylvia Booth Hubbard

A common chemical ingredient in plastics has been linked to smaller penises and incomplete descent of testicles in baby boys. Phthalates, which are added to plastics to keep them soft and pliable, are linked to a feminizing effect on boy fetuses whose moms had above-average levels of the chemical in their urine while pregnant. Moms who had the highest amounts gave birth to boys with more feminine characteristics. Scientists have been concerned about the effects of the phthalates, known as DEHP, because rodent studies showed it had a negative effect on the masculinity of young rats. Current research conducted in three different areas of the United States, showed their concerns were well-founded. Scientists found a definite correlation between levels of the chemical in pregnant moms and a feminizing effect on their sons. They theorize that phthalates may reduce testosterone synthesis. Phthalates are added to many personal care products including perfume, nail polish and hair spray. They are also included in many cosmetics, but the consumer is unaware because they are not specifically listed on the label, hiding under other items such as fragrances. © 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Personal Liberties at Stake in Raw Milk Issue

By: Kimberly Hartke

Our constitutional right to liberty is systematically being attacked by government agencies flanked by anti-competitive forces in the food industry. Nowhere is this more obvious than on the raw milk issue. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently vetoed SB201, a bill to preserve consumers’ rights to access farm fresh milk while guaranteeing its safety. The governor, who likely consumed raw dairy in his rise to stardom as a body builder, thwarted the freedoms of the over 40,000 raw milk devotees in his state. He ignored the will of the people in favor of the milk processors and the government regulators bent on crushing the raw dairy producers in their state — two of which are the most successful in the nation. The California Department of Food and Agriculture, whose officials repeatedly refused to appear at hearings on the legislation, pushed The Terminator’s pen on a bill that received populist support and nearly unanimous approval by both houses of the legislature. Similar backroom politics killed the Farm Fresh Milk Act in Maryland last year, which would have reinvigorated struggling small dairy farms by recognizing their right to sell milk direct to consumers at the farm gate. Hundreds of Maryland families participated in lobbying efforts in support of the bill, and yet it was killed in committee (by a very close vote) because of the bureaucrats’ dire warnings of an imminent threat to public health. In Pennsylvania, an aggressive anti-raw milk stance has created a hostile atmosphere for over 100 family farms. Pennsylvania raw milk farms practice humane animal husbandry and consequently offer a superior product to thousands of consumers, many of whom consume raw milk for its healing qualities. Bill Chirdon, the director of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s (PDA) Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services, is spearheading a pathogen witch hunt that appears to be aimed at chilling consumer demand for raw dairy. Through stepped up inspection schedules and a flurry of negative press releases warning of pathogens in raw milk in 2008, Chirdon has managed to damage farmer’s livelihoods, thus raising the ire of consumers and farmers alike. Taking a guilty until proven innocent attitude toward one dairy farmer in a recent case, he even issued a press release pinning blame for several illnesses on the dairy, prior to the return of official test results. When the test results came back negative, he proceeded to withhold the release of the results to the media. At the same time, he disseminated another press release, which claimed a pathogen was found in an opened milk container from a sick household. Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund board member, Ted Beals, M.D., a pathologist and former laboratory chief says that the testing of an opened container, especially from a sick household, is an unacceptable test. An opened container may be cross-contaminated, and this is even more likely to happen in a home where there is illness. Releasing these unorthodox test results to the media totally eclipsed the PDA’s subsequent announcement that the official test results for pathogens came back negative. The dairy had been exonerated, yet the public’s perception remained that it was risky to buy raw milk. Consumer choice and the survival of family farms, particularly those who practice traditional and sustainable farming methods, are under siege by government policies informed by institutional bias against unprocessed milk. Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation www.westonaprice.org and the nation’s leading champion of raw dairy for its nutritional benefits, www.realmilk.com has a dire warning of her own. “The right to produce and consume raw dairy is vital to the health of the family farm and our citizens. The future of sustainable agriculture and the health of our nation depend on a new paradigm that respects the essential liberties of farmers and consumers.” Bureaucrats and Big Business with wanton disregard for our freedoms, may stir up such resistance that they end up stimulating demand for raw dairy, rather than curbing sales. Their campaign of oppression may be just what we need to bring that new paradigm about. Kimberly Hartke is a raw dairy consumer in Virginia. Virginia outlawed retail and farm sales of raw milk, so her family had to buy a share of a cow in order to have access to farm fresh milk. She is now the publicist for the Weston A. Price Foundation, which suggests raw dairy from pasture-raised cows can heal many health problems. Visit her blog: www.hartkeonline.blogspot.com.

5 Ways to Keep Bisphenol A, or BPA, Out of Your Food

With studies stacking up against the chemical, here's what you need to know to lower your exposure

By Deborah Kotz

Posted September 17, 2008

With yesterday's study linking bisphenol A—a chemical in hard plastics and the linings of food and beverage cans—to diabetes and heart disease, you may be wondering what you can do to minimize your exposure. The Environmental Working Group last year conducted an analysis of BPA in various canned foods and found the amount varies widely depending on the food. Condensed milk, for instance, has relatively little BPA, while infant formula has a lot more—about one fifth the safe dose limit set by the Food and Drug Administration. Of course, the potential risk also depends on how much you consume. Canned soda has less BPA per serving than some other foods, but if you're having a six pack a day...

(Courtesy of Environmental Working Group)

Video: The Dangers of Heart Disease

Related News

• Heart Disease, Diabetes Linked to Chemical in Plastics
• How to Limit Your Exposure to Phthalates
• Discuss Heart Disease
• Video: New Safety Questions on Chemical in Baby Bottles

Here are some good rules of thumb for reducing your intake of BPA.

1. Buy your tomato sauce in glass jars. Canned tomato sauce is likely to have higher levels of BPA because the high acidity of the tomatoes causes more of the chemical to leach from the lining of the can. Think beyond plain tomato sauce to any canned pasta—like ravioli and those fun-looking kids' meals.

2. Consume frozen or fresh fruits and vegetables instead of canned. In addition to their BPA-free benefit, fresh and frozen produce usually have more nutrients, which often get lost in the process of canning. Eden Foods does offer canned beans that are BPA-free.

3. Purchase beverages in plastic or glass bottles. Canned soda and juice often contain some BPA. You don't need to worry, though, about disposable plastic water bottles. Most don't contain bisphenol A, and those that do are usually marked on the bottom with a number 7 recycling code.

4. Use powdered infant formula instead of ready-to-serve liquid. A separate assessment from the Environmental Working Group found that liquid formulas contain more BPA than powdered brands.

5. Think in terms of moderation. You don't need to avoid all canned foods. Just consult the chart below and follow a sensible approach, eating less of those foods that are high in BPA. Click here for the full report on canned foods.

Even Occasional Smoking Harms Arteries

Even occasional cigarette smoking can impair the functioning of your arteries, according to a new University of Georgia study that used ultrasound to measure how the arteries of young, healthy adults respond to changes in blood flow.


“Most people know that if they have a cigarette or two over the weekend that it’s not good for their arteries,” said study co-author Kevin McCully, a professor of kinesiology in the UGA College of Education, “but what they may not be aware of—and what our study shows—is that the decrease in function persists into the next week, if not longer.”


Previous studies have shown reductions in the arterial health of people who smoke regularly, McCully said, but what’s surprising about his finding is that the study subjects were occasional smokers (less than a pack a week) who had not smoked for at least two days before their ultrasound. The study, which appears in the early online edition of the journal Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, found that the arteries of occasional smokers were 36 percent less responsive to changes in blood flow than non-smokers. ....More

Also See: Thank You for Smoking

Get 2 1/2 Hours of Exercise Each Week

Adults should aim to get in 2 1/2 hours of exercise a week and children should run and play for at least an hour a day, according to new exercise guidelines issued by the U.S. government on Tuesday.

The guidelines, meant to be akin to the "Food Pyramid" nutritional advice, are based on studies that show clear health benefits from regular, moderate exercise.

"More than 59 percent of adults don't get enough physical activity and a quarter of adults aren't active at all in their leisure time," Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said in a telephone interview. ....more

Warning Highlights Dangers of Microwaving

OMAHA, Neb. -- Zapping frozen meals in the microwave may be fast and easy, but it also can make you sick if it's not done properly.

That message has been slow to catch on, despite a spate of illnesses last year from improperly microwaved frozen foods. On Sunday, the government issued a new warning urging consumers to thoroughly cook frozen chicken dinners after 32 people in 12 states were sickened with salmonella poisoning.

"Given how people use microwaves, it's great for reheating, but maybe not so good for cooking," said Doug Powell, scientific director of the International Food Safety Network based at Kansas State University. ....more

Red Wine Cuts Lung Cancer Risk

By: Sylvia Booth Hubbard

Enjoying a glass or two of red wine daily may slash your risk of developing lung cancer by 60 percent if you’re a smoker. A study published in the October issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, found that moderate consumption of red wine lowered the risk of lung cancer in men. “An antioxidant compound in red wine may be protective of lung cancer, particularly among smokers,” said Chun Chao, Ph.D., a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente Department of Research and Evaluation in Pasadena, California. The study collected information on over 84,000 men aged 45 to 69 years old in California’s healthcare system. Scientists measured the effects of beer, white wine, red wine and liquor on the risk of developing lung cancer. Factors such as race, education, body mass index, and smoking history were also considered. The researchers found that for every glass of red wine consumed each month, the risk of developing lung cancer dropped by two percent. The biggest reduction was seen in smokers who drank one or two glasses of red wine daily. Their risk was reduced by 60 percent. Beer, white wine and liquor had no measureable effect. “Red wine is known to contain high levels of antioxidants,” said Chao. "There is a compound called resveratrol that is very rich in red wine because it is derived from the grape skin. This compound has shown significant health benefits in preclinical studies.” Researchers warn that their findings shouldn’t encourage heavy drinking and also noted that even smokers who drank red wine had a higher risk of lung cancer than non-smokers. www.newsmax.com

Putting a fan in baby's room might fight SIDS

Having your baby sleep on his back is still the best way to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, but a new study suggests that using a fan in the room can help, too.

The study, published in October's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found that running a fan appears to reduce the risk of SIDS, the leading cause of death for babies 1 month to 1 year old.

The cause of SIDS remains unknown. But re-inhaling exhaled gases, such as carbon dioxide, during sleep has been identified as a possible cause.

"It is conceivable that increasing room ventilation by using a fan helps to disperse accumulated carbon dioxide ... around the nose and mouth," the study authors wrote.

Nationally, deaths from SIDS have dropped by more than half since 1992, with parents heeding doctors' recommendation to place babies on their backs to sleep. Still, an estimated 2,500 infants nationwide die each year.

The study found that, in rooms where the temperature was above 69 degrees, having a fan on lowered the odds of SIDS by 94 percent.

The research was based on a survey of 185 mothers of infants with a confirmed diagnosis of SIDS and mothers of more than 300 randomly selected infants.....more

Young Kids Shouldn't Have Hamsters, Exotic Pets

Warning: young children should not keep hedgehogs as pets — or hamsters, baby chicks, lizards and turtles, for that matter — because of risks for disease.

That's according to the nation's leading pediatricians' group in a new report about dangers from exotic animals.

Besides evidence that they can carry dangerous and sometimes potentially deadly germs, exotic pets may be more prone than cats and dogs to bite, scratch or claw — putting children younger than 5 particularly at risk, the report says.

Young children are vulnerable because of developing immune systems plus they often put their hands in their mouths.

Asian/White Couples Face Specific Pregnancy Risks

Pregnant women who are part of an Asian-white couple face an increased risk of gestational diabetes as compared with couples in which both partners are white, according to a new study from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The researchers also found that Asian women whose partners are white are more likely than white women with Asian or white partners to have a caesarean delivery, as part of a broad analysis of perinatal outcomes among Asian, white and Asian-white couples.

The study will be published in the October issue of American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The findings, the authors say, could benefit clinicians working with an increasingly diverse patient population.

"There's great heterogeneity in our country; there are people of many different races and backgrounds," said co-author Yasser El-Sayed, MD, a Packard Children's Hospital obstetrician and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the medical school. "Gaining better insight into the risks facing specific populations provides for better counseling and better prenatal care."

It's difficult to estimate the prevalence of Asian-white couples, but 14.3 percent of Americans reporting Asian race in the U.S. Census Bureau's 2000 survey also reported being of mixed Asian-white ancestry. Although past studies have looked at ethnic differences in perinatal outcomes, the majority of research has focused on white- African-American couples. Few studies have focused specifically on Asian-white couples, said El-Sayed, who is also associate chief of maternal-fetal medicine.

To learn more about outcomes and risks in this population, the researchers looked at data from white, Asian and Asian-white couples who delivered at the Johnson Center for Pregnancy and Newborn Services at Packard Children's from 2000 through 2005. (During that time period, 5,575 white, 3,226 Asian and 868 Asian-white couples delivered babies at the hospital.) The team recorded the type of delivery - caesarean vs. vaginal - and examined perinatal outcomes including gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, preterm delivery and birth weight.

El-Sayed and his colleagues found, as noted in their paper, that Asian- white couples "represent a population with distinct perinatal risks that differ depending upon which parent is of Asian race."

More specifically, the researchers found that white mother/Asian father couples had the lowest rate (23 percent) of caesarean delivery, while Asian mother/white father couples had the highest rate (33.2 percent). Because birth weights between these two groups were similar, the researchers say the findings suggest that the average Asian woman's pelvis may be smaller than the average white woman's and less able to accommodate babies of a certain size. (Asian couples had babies with the lowest median birth weight, so caesarean delivery was less common among those women.)

It's important for clinicians to know which women may have an increased risk of caesarean delivery, so they can conduct proper counseling prior to childbirth, El-Sayed said.

El-Sayed and his colleagues also found that the incidence of gestational diabetes was lowest among white couples at 1.61 percent and highest among Asian couples at 5.73 percent - and just under 4 percent for Asian-white couples. These findings weren't altogether surprising: past studies have shown an increased risk of diabetes among Asian couples, which researchers attribute to an underlying genetic predisposition. But the interesting finding, El-Sayed said, was that the risk for interracial couples was about the same regardless of which parent was Asian.

Based on their findings, El-Sayed said clinicians should consider both maternal and paternal race when determining a patient's risk for perinatal complications. "One has to factor in as many relevant variables as possible when you counsel a patient about pregnancy," he said. "We've shown in this paper that if you have an interracial couple, depending on which parent is of which race, there may be different relative risks of certain outcomes that could inform and enhance clinical management."

Anti-obesity drug bites the dust

The search for anti-obesity drugs got a setback with Merck's announcement Thursday that the company has ended obesity research on its experimental drug taranabant. According to a statement from the company, though phase three results showed it did help people lose weight, it also had too many side effects. Here's the company's Oct. 2 statement.

Taranabant is a chemical that blocks a receptor in the brain that is activated by THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. (Readers may be aware that partaking of marijuana stimulates the appetite; conversely, blocking the brain receptor through which this effect occurs might be expected to have an anti-munchie effect.) But the receptor blocked by taranabant is widely distributed in the brain and presumably involved in a variety of brain processes. Plus it's also found in certain other tissues of the body, including fat cells and the adrenal, thyroid and pituitary glands. So it's not surprising the drug would have other effects unrelated to appetite.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, "The company said Thursday that both effectiveness and side effects are dependent on dose levels, with higher doses producing greater effectiveness but more adverse events. Essentially, Merck wasn't able to find a dose level that adequately minimizes risk while helping people lose weight to a significant degree."

This isn't the first anti-obesity drug developed that acts on cannabinoid receptors. Another, Sanofi-Aventis' rimonabant (Accomplia), is available in some countries in Europe but hasn't received FDA approval in the U.S.; in 2007 an FDA advisory committee recommended against approval because of side effect concerns.

-- Rosie Mestel

Be Careful Which Breakfast Cereals Your Kids Eat

 

Boston (ChattahBox) - Consumer Reports Health has issued a warning on many popular cereals, revealing that severl of them that kids consume daily are loaded with sugar.

It is important for parents to pay attention to the report, set to be published in the November issue of Consumer Reports.

The report looked at 27 different brands of cereal, and found that 11 were loaded with sugar, as much as a glazed doughnut in just one serving.

Cereals which were found to have more than 50% sugar by weight included Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, Kraft Foods Inc’s Post Golden Crisp, as well as others.

Other cereals loaded with sugar included Froot Loops, Corn Pops, Rice Krispies, Apple Jacks, and Cocoa Krispies.

Cereal has been touted as a great source of carbs, vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc, but not with this much sugar.

The cereals which rated the best were General Mills’ Cheerios, Kix, Honey Nut Cheerios, as well as Quaker Oats’ Life.

Rodent of the week: When mice overeat

Overeating not only makes your body expand, it sends your brain off-kilter, say the authors of a new study on obesity. The study, from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, showed that a part of the brain that is normally dormant can be activated by too many calories.

Previous research has shown that over-nutrition causes an inflammatory response in many tissues in the body. This inflammation can lead to diseases like diabetes. A particular molecular compound called IKKbeta/NK-kappaB is known to promote this inflammation. But by giving mice loads of sugar or fat, the same molecular compound was activated in their brains. That, in turn, caused dysfunctions in the way they handled nutrition, such as changes in the important metabolic hormones insulin and leptin. Insulin lowers blood sugar while leptin controls appetite.

Researchers think that this normally inactive pathway in the brain may have been important in our evolutionary past, perhaps by boosting the body's immunity. But it's definitely something modern-day humans want to avoid. So go easy on that never-ending pasta bowl.

"In today's society, this pathway is mobilized by a different environmental challenge -- over-nutrition," said Dongsheng Cai, the lead author of the study. "The pathway leads to a number of dysfunctions."

The study also found that treatments that prevent the activity of IKKbeta/NF-kappaB in the animals' brains protected them from obesity. Scientists now hope they can create treatments to block this pathway in humans. The study was published in the journal Cell.

-- Shari Roan

Top Psychiatrist Didn’t Report Drug Makers’ Pay

One of the nation’s most influential psychiatrists earned more than $2.8 million in consulting arrangements with drug makers from 2000 to 2007, failed to report at least $1.2 million of that income to his university and violated federal research rules, according to documents provided to Congressional investigators.More...

aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_1

Toxic Chemicals Common in Baby Products

Toxic fire retardant chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects, and neurological and other health problems are prevalent in common baby products, according to a study released by national environmental group Friends of the Earth.

The study, “Killer Cribs: Protecting Infants and Children from Toxic Exposure,” found that these toxic chemicals, called halogenated fire retardants, appear in a high percentage of baby products, including portable cribs, strollers, car seats and infant carriers. Due to their prevalence in common household products, these chemicals have been found in breast milk and in children. Infants and children are especially vulnerable to the health effects of these chemicals as they impact development at critical stages of growth.

“We’re poisoning our children, one crib at a time,” said Russell Long, Vice-President of Friends of the Earth. “Given the clear links to learning disorders and reproductive problems, this is beyond foolish. Fortunately, there are fire-safe alternatives, but the chemical industry is fighting hard to keep its profits at the expense of our kids.”

Friends of the Earth’s Sara Schedler, the report’s lead author said, “We sampled a wide variety of children’s products, and what we found was alarming. Toxic chemicals are being put into products that children and babies interact with on a regular basis, endangering their health. The government must act now to limit these chemicals’ use, and companies should immediately phase them of their products.”

The largest state in the nation may soon enact safeguards. A bill sponsored by California Assemblyman Mark Leno (AB 706) would end the use of these dangerous chemicals in many products and has already passed the California Assembly. Action is pending on the California Senate floor.

“Kids shouldn’t have to sleep on or play with toxic products that could cause long-term damage to their health,” Leno said. “Our bill would help ensure they don’t.”more..

aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_1

Overeating Makes Brain Go Haywire

Overeating makes the brain go haywire, prompting a cascade of damage that may cause diabetes, heart disease and other ills, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.more..

Saliva Ingredient Helps Heal Wounds, Report Says

Human saliva contains a compound that greatly speeds wound healing, according to scientists from The Netherlands.

The scientists' report, published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), may offer hope to people suffering from chronic wounds related to diabetes and other disorders, as well as traumatic injuries and burns. In addition, the fact that the compound can be mass produced means it has the potential to become as common as antibiotic creams and rubbing alcohol.

"We hope our finding is ultimately beneficial for people who suffer from non-healing wounds, such as foot ulcers and diabetic ulcers, as well as for treatment of trauma-induced wounds like burns," said Menno Oudhoff, first author of the report.

Specifically, scientists found that histatin, a small protein in saliva previously believed to kill only bacteria, was responsible for the healing. The researchers used epithelial cells that line the inner cheek and cultured in dishes until the surfaces were completely covered with cells. Then they made an artificial wound in the cell layer in each dish, by scratching a small piece of the cells away.

In one dish, cells were bathed in an isotonic fluid without any additions. In the other dish, cells were bathed in human saliva.

After 16 hours the scientists noticed that the saliva-treated "wound" was almost completely closed. In the dish with the untreated "wound," a substantial part of it was still open.

This proved that human saliva contains a factor which accelerates wound closure of oral cells. Because saliva is a complex liquid with many components, the next step was to identify which component was responsible for wound healing. Using various techniques the researchers split the saliva into its individual components, tested each in their wound model, and finally determined that histatin was responsible.

"This study not only answers the biological question of why animals lick their wounds," said Gerald Weissmann, MD, editor-in-chief of The FASEB Journal, "it also explains why wounds in the mouth, like those of a tooth extraction, heal much faster than comparable wounds of the skin and bone. It also directs us to begin looking at saliva as a source for new drugs."

www.newsmax.com

 

High rate of C-section births is health concern for women

By SARA L. AINSWORTH
GUEST COLUMNIST

Washington's extraordinarily high rate of Caesarean-section deliveries, reported Aug. 22 in the P-I, raises alarms for those who care about women's reproductive health and patients' rights.

Both the law and respect for women's humanity require that every pregnant woman be fully informed of the risks of all forms of labor and delivery in a language she can understand; that she be supported in her decisions about how to bring her children into the world, whether it be in a hospital, a birthing center or at home; and that she not be penalized for those decisions either medically or legally.

In addition to the potential health risks of the surgery, women who have C-sections face consequences that even conscientious health care providers may not recognize or discuss with their patients.

In many parts of this state, having one C-section delivery will require another at a subsequent birth, even over the objection of the pregnant woman and her doctor. Several Washington hospitals refuse to allow doctors to provide labor and delivery services to pregnant women who have had a previous C-section unless those women submit to a second C-section delivery.

Those hospitals claim they cannot allow those women to have the same care they provide to all other pregnant women because the small additional risk of uterine rupture requires an anesthesiologist on staff 24 hours per day. It is difficult to credit this claim, given that most if not all of those hospitals have emergency departments open 24 hours per day, and that other pregnant women are also at risk of complications during labor and delivery that may necessitate emergency surgery.

Frequently, there is no alternative hospital within a safe distance, or the pregnant woman's insurance (or lack thereof) limits her ability to seek care at another location. A pregnant woman must either submit to a subsequent C-section, whether she thinks it is a wise medical decision or not, or deliver her baby outside the hospital. For those women who do not want a home birth, or who cannot have one because of lack of health insurance coverage or lack of available midwives within a safe distance of home, this is coercion, not consent.

Insurance practices also harm women who have had C-section surgeries. The New York Times recently reported that health insurance companies have denied coverage to women who have had C-section deliveries, calling the surgery a "pre-existing condition." And here in Washington, midwives struggle to obtain insurance that will cover their care for women who have had a previous C-section.

Policies and practices that force pregnant women to submit to unnecessary surgery cannot be justified. We would never countenance that practice for any other patient. Pointing to potential risk to the baby does not justify ignoring the mother's decisions about her medical care.

Such reasoning inappropriately views a pregnant woman's decision about her and her baby's needs as suspect, and it ignores her legal rights as a patient. All pregnant women, whether they view birth as a natural event only rarely needing medical intervention, or whether they willingly accept medical assistance with the birth process, have the legal right to informed consent and to direct the experience of bringing their children into the world.

Sara L. Ainsworth is senior legal and legislative counsel at Northwest Women's Law Center.

aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_1

Amendment 48: It's dangerous to women

Imagine a law declaring that, upon becoming pregnant, a woman loses her right to bodily integrity, life and liberty. Such a law has been proposed in Colorado, a so-called "human life amendment" to the state constitution declaring that the term "person" includes "any human being from the moment of fertilization."

According to Kristi Burton, the spokeswoman for Amendment 48, it's about "the power of truth." The truth, however, is that this amendment will be devastating to pregnant women and dangerous for both maternal and fetal health.

Constitutional law ensures that people — including pregnant women — have the right to make their own health-care decisions. Yet, it is clear that if fetuses are recognized as legal persons, pregnant women could very likely lose these constitutionally protected rights. That's because laws like this one enable the state to intervene in pregnant women's lives.

For example, in Washington, D.C., doctors sought a court order to force Ayesha Madyun to have a C-section, claiming the fetus faced a 50 to 75 percent chance of infection if not delivered surgically. The court said, "All that stood between the Madyun fetus and its independent existence, separate from its mother, was — put simply — a doctor's scalpel." With that, the court granted the order. When the procedure was done, there was no evidence of infection.

In Florida, Laura Pemberton wanted to have a vaginal birth after a previous C-section. Her doctors believed that her fetus had a right to be born by a C-section. A sheriff came to her house, took her into custody while she was in active labor, strapped her legs together and forced her to go to a hospital, where they were holding a hearing about the rights of the fetus. A lawyer was appointed for her fetus but not for her. She was forced to have a C-section. Pemberton subsequently gave birth vaginally to four more children, defying the medical and court predictions of harm.

In each case, state intervention was based on the claim that fetuses had separate legal rights — exactly the ones Amendment 48 would establish in Colorado. But these forced interventions or deprivations of liberty did not actually protect mothers or babies.

If the amendment passes, Colorado's juvenile courts will have jurisdiction whenever doctors or family members disagree with a pregnant woman's medical decisions. A woman's right to bodily integrity, due process, and even life itself will disappear in the face of fetal personhood claims.

To oppose the recognition of fetal personhood as a matter of state constitutional law is not to deny the value of potential life as matter of religious belief, emotional conviction or personal experience. Rather, it is to recognize that rewriting the state constitution to include human beings from the moment of fertilization is to exclude women from the moment they become pregnant.

L. Indra Lusero is LUZ Reproductive Justice Think Tank J.D. Candidate, University of Denver School of Law, and Lynn M. Paltrow is executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women.

New Survey Reveals Women Are Unaware of the Dangers of Surgical Adhesions

Red Bank, NJ - Although more than half of the country's women will have some type of pelvic surgery and are therefore at risk for surgical adhesions, a survey released this month by the not-for-profit National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC) finds that women are largely unaware of the health risks associated with adhesions.

Surgical adhesions occur when tissue in the abdominal cavity adheres, or gets stuck to other tissue. Adhesions commonly form following pelvic surgeries, such as hysterectomy, tubal ligation, cesarean section, and cyst removal. Left untreated, adhesions can cause infertility, abdominal pain, and bowel obstruction.

The survey of 1,000 women showed respondents strongly believe women should be informed about surgical adhesions prior to surgery (69%). Conversely, an overwhelming majority of women (80%) who had pelvic surgery were not informed about adhesions prior to their surgery. Of the women in the survey who suffer from adhesions, seven out of ten (70%) say they would have taken special precautions to protect themselves from getting adhesions if they had been aware of possible adhesion-related complications.

Susan Jones*, a human resources director and mother of three from McLean, Virginia, has experience with the long-term effects adhesions can have on a person's health. All of Jones's children were delivered by cesarean section. Due to adhesions caused by these three surgeries, she suffers from reoccurring abdominal pain and has been advised not to have any more children because of the increased difficulty of delivering a baby surrounded by such a large amount of scar tissue.

"My first c-section only took about 10 minutes for the doctor to get the baby out," said Jones. "My second c-section took nearly 45 minutes and my final c-section took nearly an hour and a half. My doctor had such a hard time maneuvering around the scar tissue to get to my baby."

"If I had known about adhesions," continued Jones, "I would have talked to my doctor about what can be done to reduce my risk for getting them."

Like Ms. Jones, half (51%) of survey respondents were not aware that preventative measures can be taken to lower your risk of adhesions and an even higher proportion (68%) of women that had undergone surgery did not know if their surgeon took specific steps to guard against adhesions.

"Preventive measures to reduce the incidence of adhesions are the mainstay of limiting the complications related to adhesions," stated Dr. Glenn Schattman, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. "These include using minimally invasive surgical procedures, meticulous surgical technique, keeping tissues moist, reducing bleeding and the use of adjuvant adhesions prevention barriers to keep the tissues from sticking to each other."

"It's important to understand that once adhesions form, they are hard to get rid of," continued Dr. Schattman. "Adhesions can cause blockages of the intestines, fallopian tubes causing infertility and pain."

When faced with pelvic surgery, women said they were most concerned about short-term surgical issues such as the general recovery process (60%), immediate surgical results (59%) and post surgical pain (59%).

"Along with their immediate post-surgery concerns, women need to make adhesions part of the pre-surgery dialogue with their health care provider," stated Elizabeth Battaglino Cahill, RN, executive vice president of the NWHRC. "We hope that this adhesion awareness campaign can give women the tools they need to understand the health risks of adhesions and how to protect themselves from this life-long internal scarring."

To provide women the information they need about ways to minimize the risk of surgical adhesions, the NWHRC has developed a one-page fast facts on adhesions and an in-depth Guide to Preparing for Gynecologic Surgery. The guide includes sections entitled:

• All About Adhesions
• Preparing for Surgery Checklist
• Choosing a Surgeon
• After Your Surgery

To download your complimentary online copy of the Guide to Preparing for Gynecologic Surgery, "Fast Facts for Your Health: Pelvic Adhesions" or to learn more about the adhesion survey, please visit NWHRC's award-winning Web site, www.healthywomen.org. The survey and campaign materials were made possible through support from Ethicon Women's Health & Urology, a division of ETHICON, Inc.

aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_1

Popular Supplements Glucosamine and Chondroitin No Good for Arthritis

Popular dietary supplements – glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate – proved no better than placebos in treating people suffering from osteoarthritis, a two years study published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism revealed.

The study is a follow-up to a large 2006 National Institutes of Health-funded study, which was designed to look whether supplements did a better job than sugar pills or the arthritis pain medication Celebrex in reducing pain in osteoarthritis patients. But the study found no improvement in those given supplements. The study was called GAIT (Glucosamine/chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial) and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2006.

At the end of the study, the researchers continued to watch 572 volunteers for another 18 months and found the supplements did not appear to slow the loss of cartilage, taken either alone or together. More exactly, arthritis worsened in 24 percent of participants taking both, similar to those taking placebo.

“We don’t have good evidence that it (glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate combination) slows (disease) progression,” rheumatologist Allen Sawitzke, professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah and head investigator, said.

The study comes like a slap in the face of supplements’ makers. The combination glucosamine – chondroitin sulfate is the sixth-top-selling dietary supplement in the United States, with annual sales of $831 million last year, according to the “Nutrition Business Journal.”

However, Dr. Sawitzke said he would neither encourage nor discourage patients from taking the supplements.

"We didn't run into safety issues, so if a patient wants to try them, I don't see a reason to say no. But I can't recommend it; there's no supportive data that says it works," he said.

According to the most recent figures made public by the Arthritis Foundation, osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, currently affects 27 million of the 46 million people in the United States with arthritis. In addition, one in two Americans are at risk for knee osteoarthritis over their lifetime.

Osteoarthritis (OA), also called osteoarthroses or degenerative joint disease, is the most common type of arthritis. OA is a chronic condition characterized by the breakdown of the joint’s cartilage. Cartilage is the part of the joint that cushions the ends of the bones and allows easy movement of joints. The breakdown of cartilage causes the bones to rub against each other, causing stiffness, pain and loss of movement in the joint. OA typically affects only certain joints, such as the hips, hands, knees, low back and neck. After the age of 50, women are more often affected by OA than men. There are not known cause of OA but certain factors such as heredity, overweight, joint injury, repeated overuse of certain joints, lack of physical activity, nerve injury and aging increase the risk of developing OA.

Arthritis and related conditions, such as OA, cost the U.S. economy nearly $128 billion per year in medical care and indirect expenses, including lost wages and productivity.

© 2007 - 2008 - eFluxMedia

FDA: No Lou Gehrig's disease risk with statins

An analysis of dozens of studies found the widely used statin cholesterol drugs do not increase the risk of Lou Gehrig's disease, U.S. health officials said on Monday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it reviewed 41 long-term controlled clinical trials after receiving a higher- than-expected number of reports of Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in patients who were treated with the cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Millions of people around the world take statins, including Pfizer Inc's Lipitor and AstraZeneca Plc's Crestor.

FDA researchers found that nine out of about 64,000 patients treated with statins were diagnosed with ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, during long-term clinical trials. That compared with 10 of 56,000 patients who got placebos.

"The results show no increased incidence of the disease in patients treated with a statin compared with placebo," an FDA statement said.

Dr. Mark Avigan, director of pharmacovigilance in the FDA's drug center, said the finding was "reassuring," but added that "given the extensive use of this class of drugs and the serious nature of ALS, continued study of this issue is warranted."

Results from another study by researchers at Stanford University and the health insurer Kaiser Permanente should be available in six to nine months, the FDA said. The agency also is considering additional studies of its own.

The FDA analysis was published in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.

AstraZeneca spokeswoman Donna Huang said the company's own monitoring and reviews of medical literature "has not identified a causal relationship between ALS and the use of Crestor." More than 13 million patients worldwide have been prescribed the drug, she said.  

Page 1 | 2 Next Page

Pistachios are Heart Healthy

Going green may be heart healthy if the green you choose is pistachio nuts, according to researchers at Penn State who conducted the first study to investigate the way pistachios lower cholesterol.

"We investigated mechanisms of action to explain the cholesterol-lowering effects of the pistachio diets," says Sarah K. Gebauer, recent Penn State Ph.D. recipient, currently a post-doctoral research associate, USDA Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center.

The researchers conducted a randomized, crossover design, controlled feeding experiment to test the effects of pistachios added to a heart healthy moderate-fat diet on cardiovascular disease risk factors. Controlled feeding experiments provide all the food eaten by study subjects for the duration of the study segment.

The participants began the study by eating a typical American diet consisting of 35 percent total fat and 11 percent saturated fat for two weeks. They then tested three diets for four weeks each with about a two-week break between each diet. All three diets were variations on the Step I Diet, a cholesterol-lowering diet in general use. The diets included, as a control, a Step I Diet with no pistachios and about 25 percent total fat and 8 percent saturated fat. The pistachio enhanced diets were Step I Diets with 10 and 20 percent of the energy supplied by pistachio nuts, respectively. The 10 percent pistachio diet had 30 percent total fat and 8 percent saturated fat and the 20 percent pistachio diet had 34 percent total fat and 8 percent saturated fat.

The participants ate half their pistachios as a snack and the rest incorporated into meals.

The researchers report in the most recent issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that "Inclusion of pistachios in a healthy diet beneficially affects cardiovascular disease risk factors in a dose-dependent manner, which may reflect effects on Stearoyl CoA Desaturase (SCD). " The researchers used the ratio of two fatty acids, 16:1 and 16:0 in plasma as a marker for SCD, an enzyme that is involved in the body's synthesis of fatty acids.

"SCD is an important enzyme involved in cholesterol metabolism," says Gebauer.

They found the ratio of 16:1/16:0 was significantly lower, suggesting a decrease in SCD activity, after eating the 20 percent energy pistachio diet compared to the control diet which had no pistachios. Also, the change in the 16:1/16:0 ratio was correlated with the change in cholesterol, suggesting that SCD activity may contribute to the lipid-lowering effects of pistachios. That, accompanied by the dose-dependent effects of the pistachios, begins to unravel the way in which pistachios improve cardiovascular health.

Compared to the control diet, the 20 percent pistachio diet lowered LDL cholesterol -- bad cholesterol -- about 12 percent and the 10 percent energy pistachio diet lowered LDL cholesterol by 9 percent that suggests a 9 to 12 percent decrease in coronary heart disease risk. The relationships of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol to HDL cholesterol may be more powerful predictors of cardiovascular risk. The effects of the 10 and 20 percent energy diets showed a dose dependent effect on these ratios.

However, the researchers note that the reduction in LDL cholesterol observed was seven times greater than would be expected from only the fatty acid profile of pistachios. They suggest that the lipid lowering effects not only reflect the fatty acid profile of the diet, but also are the result of other bioactive substances in pistachios, perhaps phytosterols and fiber.

"Our study has shown that pistachios, eaten with a heart healthy diet, may decrease a person's CVD risk profile, says Penny Kris-Etherton, distinguished professor of nutrition and primary investigator of the study."

www.newsmax.com